A DISTRAUGHT mother told an inquest about the moment she found her 10-year-old son hanged after a prank which went wrong.

Josephine Suzanne Antoinette Caroline Kewley wept as she spoke about the events leading up to the death of Matthew on January 30 this year.

The youngster, of Compton Place, Ellesmere Port, had been in trouble with his mother earlier in the afternoon.

It is believed he wrapped his school belt around his neck and attached it to the top of his bunk bed as a way of shocking her, but never intended it to end in tragedy.

The William Stockton Primary School pupil was described by his deputy headteacher Peter Smith as 'a boy who enjoyed life' and would never let things get him down.

Last Thursday's Chester inquest heard Matthew had wanted to go out on his scooter after returning from school but had been told he couldn't because of bad weather.

He went out once, leaving a note for his mum, who found Matthew and brought him back home.

He then went out again and although Mrs Kewley searched for her son, she couldn't find him and when he returned home a short time later he was sent upstairs to shower before tea.

Mrs Kewley, who was joined at the hearing by her husband Kenneth, said 'I went upstairs and that's when I saw him. I just thought he was joking with me. It was supposed to be a prank and it went wrong,' she said.

In a statement to police at the time of the incident Mrs Kewley told how she went into her son's bedroom and found him suspended from the top bunk by his brown leather schoolbelt.

An ambulance was called and Matthew was taken to the Countess of Chester Hospital, but all efforts to revive him failed.

Cheshire coroner Nicholas Rheinberg concluded that Matthew did not intend to take his own life.